Opposition cry foul over Putin win

Euronews

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov was not the only one to question the legality of Russia’s Presidential election, but he was among the first. Addressing his supporters he was dismissive of Putin’s installation of thousands of cameras inside polling stations to combat vote rigging.

“For almost a month and a half they have been showing us web cams to steer people’s attention from another thievish, totally unfair and shameful election. As a candidate,I cannot recognise them as fair or unprejudiced, or respectable,” said Zyuganov.

Independent candidate Mikhail Prokhorov’s reaction was more temperate, however he made it clear he intended to mount a legal challenge over the vote.

“We’ve reported about four thousand violations, with an especially dire situation in St. Petersburg and in the Moscow region,” warned Prokhorov.
“We’ve uncovered those violations. We will be compiling an information database which will allow us to gather all documentation to take to court.”

And leaders of the Russian opposition movement who were not allowed to field a candidate said they were not going to end their protests anytime soon.

Opposition activist Ilya Yashin said: “We are aiming to hold a peaceful but mass protest.
We are not going to attack anybody but we will be demanding a transformation of the authoritarian regime into a democratic one.”

The activists said they hoped to organise demonstrations in several cities later today.